Raj.K (Manager) 07 July 2012

police

Hi,

Can someone explain who has the authority to take cognizance and investigation powers of offences on below situation for criminal cases. And if someone takes wrongly then what action can be taken to get out of these criminal cases.

Situation:

Person X living in city XX files criminal cases A, B, C and D on person Y (lives in city YY) in a private petition(under crpc 200) with alleged incidents of crimes 1,2,3.....20 in that order of occurance with mention of incidents 1 to 19 occur in city YY. And incident 20 is allegedly occured in city XX.

And incidents 1 to 19 come under criminal charges of A,B and C and incident 20 come under criminal charge of D.

Procedure related queries:

1)Now does the magistrate and police of city XX have authority to take cognizance of criminal incidents 1 to 20 and take up investigation?

only for incident 20 by magistrate/police of city XX only and incidents 1 to 19 by magistrate/police of city YY?

2)If magistrate/police of city XX take cognizance of all the case incidents (1 to 20) for investigation and call accused for trial court in city XX, is it mandatory at the least for police of city XX to request police of city YY to investigate the incidents 1 to 19 and produce chargesheet/case diary from city YY also?

3)is it mandatory or not required for city YY police also to submit chargesheet/case diary (for incidents 1 to 19) for trial along with chargesheet/casediary from city XX police (for incident 20)?

4)Does magistrate/trial court of city XX have authority to try accused on cases A,B and C for which alleged incidents happened in city YY?

5)If this petition is filed by X under crpc200 and magistrate (of city XX) directs police (city XX) to investigate to bring out the truth and then if police of city XX submit chargesheet

> after lengthy period of investigation with a mere statement as 'based on facts/evidences collected there is prima facie case. But no new material produced other than copy-paste of FIR document to chargesheet.

> chargesheet says NO details of documents/articles/materials recovered/relied upon during investigation

> no other material other than a case diary of witness statement of X recorded at the time of FIR filing

> no other material nor any case diary from police of city YY for investigation done on incidents 1 to 19.

Does the magistrate of city XX has any authority to put this case for trial or can straight away dismiss it?

And is there any failure of procedure of law in this case?

6) is there a case for complete quash of this case on jurisdiction and any other grounds in city XX?

Hoping some experts can throw some light on all these question for clear understanding.

Thanks

Raj

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2 Replies

Rama chary Rachakonda (Secunderabad/Telangana state Highcourt practice watsapp no.9989324294 ) 07 July 2012

Mr.Raj,

"Local Jurisdiction," in relation to a Court r Magistrate means the local area within which the Court r Magistrate may exercise all or any of its or his powers under this Code, and such local area may comprise the whole of the State, or any part of the State, Government may, by notification, specify.

Object:- Every state is divided into several suitable territorial units for the purpose of the administration of criminal justice. For each territorial unit a separate court hasbeen established for speedy disposal of the cases. Each such court has its local jurisdiction. If the trial is conducted within the local jurisdiction of that Court, where the offence was committed, it will be easy to prosection. The wittnesses will be readily available. For the transportation point of view, also it saves much expenses and time of the parties and witnesses. It also gives social security. Therefore, this general rule is adopted in Section 177 of Criminal Procedure Code that all crimes are local and justiciable by local Courts only within whose jurisdiction they are committed. The common law principle of English has been adopted in section 177 of the code of criminal procedure, 1973.

Section 177:- Ordinary place of inquiry and trial:- Every offence shall ordinarily be inquired into and tried by a Court within whose local jurisdiction it was committed.

Generally crimes are in their nature local. Therefore, the jurisdiction of criminal courts is local.

Where question of jurisdiction is raised, it mustbe decided before the trial can be commenced.

Sec.177 is a general rule for jurisdiction of criminal courts.

The full bench of the Supreme Court in case " Syed Zafrul Hasan and another vs. State 1986 Cr.L.J.605 Pat " strongly opined that the Court must have jurisdiction over local of commission of offence, question of residence over local of comission of offence, question of residence of accused is irrelevant. Similary the place of appreension of arrest also does not give jurisdiction. Even if the accused is found far beyond the areas of the crime, he has to be brought back before the Court having local jurisdiction to try the same.

EXCEPTIONS;-

The word "ordinarily" in the Section 177 itself gives the meaning "except in the cases provided hereinafter to the contrary". The General rule has four exceptions. They are:

1. Trial where act is done of consequence ensues. (S.179)

2. The place of trial where act is offence by reason of relation to other offences (S.180)

3. Place of Trial in case of certain offences (S.181)

4. Offeces committed by letter etc. (S.182)

1 Like

Raj.K (Manager) 08 July 2012

Thank your info in 'local jurisdiction' of single offence....i could understand this but difficult grasping the exceptions.

But now how do i relate this to my situation given where 95% of alleged offences are in city YY starting here and only last alleged ofference in city XX and complaint filed in city YY? Now its given both cities are in different states.

Then does trial court and police of one city does they have jurisdiction of all the offences to be investigated WITHOUT involvement and WITHOUT call of investigation report from other city or is it a MUST requirement to involve? i was of understanding that only High Court have jurisdiction to try any petition out of jurisdiction of any other state....does trial court also can do the trial of offences for incidents 1 to 19 mentioned in my previous detailed query? or only incident 20?

And what should be the madatory input from investigation officer from city XX to enable her to make charge for incidents 1 to 19?

Thanks

Raj